写 (xiè): comfortable; relaxed; at ease (…

Meanings

1 comfortable; relaxed; at ease (bound; only in 写意)
2 enjoyable; carefree

Characters

写

xiè

comfortable; relaxed; at ease (bound; only in 写意)

Examples

海边的日子过得真写意。

Hǎibiān de rìzi guò de zhēn xièyì.

Life by the sea is so easy-going.

在院子里喝茶，非常写意。

Zài yuànzi lǐ hēchá, fēicháng xièyì.

Sitting in the courtyard sipping tea — very relaxed.

Tips

mistakes

The xiè reading lives in exactly one word: 写意 meaning 'comfortable, leisurely, easy-going'. Don't confuse it with the SAME written form 写意 (rising tone) — that's the celebrated 'freehand style' of Chinese painting and ink-art criticism. Different reading, different meaning, identical characters. Context picks: if you can swap in 'comfortable / relaxed', read xiè; if it's about brush technique or evoking spirit over detail, read xiě.

Components

radical

冖 mì

cover; canopy

Top cover radical (Kangxi #14) — a flat canopy with a small downward hook. Indexes 写 alongside a small family: 军 (army under canopy), 农 (farming), 冠 (crown), 冥 (dark / underworld). Here the cover stands in for the roof of a building — words are committed to paper under shelter.

semantic

与 yǔ

give; and

Bottom 与 — modern simplified shape of 與 'to give'. It serves as a graphic stand-in: traditional 寫 had 宀 (roof) over 舄 (magpie phonetic, 12+ strokes); the 1956 reform replaced the bulky 舄 with the much shorter 与, which roughly echoes the original sound. Modern read: 'give-under-cover' = put words down on paper = write.